Books: Migrant Architects of the NHS: South Asian Doctors and the Reinvention of British General Practice (1940s–1980s)

Abstract

Julian M Simpson Manchester University Press , 2018, HB , 336 pp, £ 75.00, 978-1784991302 This book is based on a scholarly thesis, but is accessible to a wider readership. It aims to offer a new perspective on the history of immigration and a better understanding of how Britain’s imperial past and South Asian migrants have contributed to shaping modern Britain and the NHS. Archival evidence, photographs, and 45 individual accounts of personal aspirations, ambitions, and struggles take the reader from British India to the establishment of the NHS and the reinvention of general practice. Simpson begins with a consideration of the link between the dismantling of ‘Empire’ and Britain’s post-war health care. With no official government policy to …